Ordeal: The woman was raped by three men in her Syrian homeland (Image: Getty)

Writing on the messaging app shortly before she was found, she said: "I am awaiting death. But I am too young to die."

Having fled to Germany two years ago following her ordeal in her Syrian homeland, Rokstan had settled in the country and had been living in a house for single women.

But she returned to her family a few days before she was murdered.

According to authorities, she had integrated into German society and worked as a translator for refugees navigating their way through the country's bureaucracy.

Mr Krüger, who employed her to interpret interviews with refugees, said: "Rokstan told me her terrible fate after she had helped me with translations."

He said he had listened to a tape she made in which she said: "I was taken by three men. Ever since that time my family have regarded me as unclean. My mother and my brothers mistreat me. They say that I deserve to die."

Her body was found in her family's allotment in Dessau on Friday 2. An post-mortem examination showed that she had been stabbed several times.

Prosecutor Christian Preissner said: "There is the suspicion that the act was carried out by persons in her close circle with a culture motive in the background."

Rokstan's father and two brothers are wanted for questioning.

The Federal Police believe the father, Hasso, has fled Germany and is now in either Turkey or Syria.

But Mr Krüger said it was in fact the mother who had ordered the killing, having already attempted to hire a hitman to carry it out in the past.